Muammar Gaddafi biography | birthday, trivia | Libyan Political Leader | Who2 Muammar Gaddafi Biography Political Leader Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya as the African country’s dictator for more than four decades before he was overthrown and killed in 2011. Born a Bedouin tribesman, Muammar Gaddafi attended military college and almost immediately set about plotting to overthrow Libya’s ruler, King Idris I. He succeeded in 1969, taking power in a bloodless coup. Muammar Gaddafi was 27. He took the title of colonel, and in the 1970s he seemed to have philosophical pretentions, publishing his so-called Green Book of political philosophy and leading Libya in a path of “Islamic socialism” while ruthlessly suppressing dissent. But in the 1980s he tangled with the United States and President Ronald Reagan ; Reagan called Gaddafi “the mad dog of the Middle East” and ordered U.S. Air Force bombings in Tripoli in 1986 that killed Gaddafi’s daughter.

The 1988 bombing of a Pan Am passenger airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, was blamed on Libyan terrorists, which led to international sanctions on Libya throughout the 1990s. Libya took responsibilty for the bombings in 2003, easing the sanctions and leading to better relations with the West. Throughout all, Muammar Gaddafi remained firmly in power and built a reputation as a shrewd, if eccentric, dictator. In 2011, he attacked protesters in his own country, leading to a full armed rebellion in Libya. An allied group of Arab and Western countries supported the rebellion by attacking Libyan air defenses and establishing a “no-fly zone” over Libya. The rebel forces overran Tripoli in August of 2011. Gaddafi escaped, but two months later he was wounded in battle after being cornered near his home town of Sirte; he reportedly was captured and then died of his wounds shortly thereafter.

Extra credit Muammar Gaddafi was born in the desert, so no specific place of birth can be listed; the BBC and other sources say it was near the town of Sirte… His son, Seif al-Islam el-Gaddafi, was widely seen as his successor before the public protests of 2011 ended Gaddafi’s rule… His Arabic name has been translated variously as Quaddafi, Qaddafi, and Khaddafi as well as Gaddafi and al-Gaddafi… He was famous for his all-female contingent of bodyguards, and for his habit of receiving visitors in a Bedouin-style tent. Mail & Guardian World Kevin Davie Photo of the day Police use a water cannon on protesters against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota, U.S. November 20, 2016. Stephanie Keith, Reuters Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016.

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(Jim Urquhart,Reuters) Fighters of Libyan forces allied with the UN-backed government fire a rocket at Islamic State fighters in Sirte, Libya, on August 4 2016. (Goran Tomasevic, Reuters) A young girl walks past candles displayed in a vigil for the nine victims at the Olympia shopping centre in Munich, shot dead by an 18 year-old German-Iranian. (Armend Nimani, AFP Photo) Muammar Gadaffi - Biography - IMDb Muammar Gadaffi Biography Showing all 24 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (12) | Personal Quotes (2) Overview (4) 6' (1.83 m) Mini Bio (1) Muammar Abu Meniar el-Gaddafi was born in the North African desert, south of Sirte, Libya, in 1942 (the exact date is unknown; some sources day June 1, while others say sometime in September).

The son of a poor Bedouin nomad, Gaddafi lived in his family's remote desert camp until he went away to school at age 9. While a student at a secondary school at Sebha, Gaddafi was inspired by the speeches of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and became a committed Arab nationalist. Gaddafi organized his fellow students into revolutionary study groups at Sebha; he continued the practice at the University of Libya in Tripoli, where he received a history degree in 1963. Following his graduation, Gaddafi entered the Libyan Military Academy in Benghazi, where he found many of the cadets were sympathetic to his anti-Western nationalism. Commissioned into the Libyan army in 1965, he began laying groundwork for an overthrow of the Libyan monarch, King Idris, whom he considered a pawn of the Western European nations. Within four years Gaddafi took control of the army and on September 1, 1969, he seized power in a carefully planned coup. Assuming command of the government as chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Council, Gaddafi declared himself commander-in-chief of Libya's armed forces and its government, with the rank of colonel.

Gaddafi soon began implementing his long-dreamed plans for Libya by nationalizing all foreign banks and oil companies and insisting on closing down all European military bases in Libya. In 1970 Gaddafi seized the private assets of Libya's Italian and Jewish residents, driving them from the country. Since assuming power, Gaddafi has given strong support to a wide variety of terrorist groups and regimes, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Uganda, the Palestine Liberation Organization and its sub-groups, and the Irish Republican Army. Heavily supported by the Soviet Union, he fought an unsuccessful war against Egypt and a disastrous war against Chad and its ally France for control of the northern regions of the country. In an attempt to drive French forces out of the country Gadaffi sent an invasion force into Chad, only to see it annihilated by the poorly armed, minimally trained but highly motivated Chadian army. The survivors fled back to Libya, leaving behind large numbers of vehicles, equipment and weapons. Gaddafi has provoked several incidents with the US, one of which led to an American retaliatory bombing raid on his headquarters in Tripoli on April 15, 1986. Gaddafi escaped with only minor injuries but his infant daughter was killed.

In 1988 Libyan intelligence agents exploded a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing over 200 people. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, Gaddafi worked to improve his relationship with the West. In exchange for his help in tracking down Islamic militants his government received concessions from the West, including the easing of various restrictions placed against it due to his terrorism of the 1980s. In 2011, as part of the "Arab Spring", major civil unrest broke out in Libya aimed at removing Gaddafi from power. Gaddafi began a violent and repressive campaign against his own people and a civil war ensued, with Gaddafi forces on one side and rebels--a combination of students, ordinary people and army defectors-with air and logistical support from NATO, on the other. After an eight-month civil war, Gaddafi was captured by rebels in his hometown of Serte and soon afterward he was executed. Flamboyant dress sense; either gaudy bespoke military uniforms or large flowing robes in various colours. Entourage of female uniformed bodyguards. Long, curly black hair.

Trivia (12) Overthrew the monarchy of Libya in the so-called "Green Revolution" in 1969, establishing a socialist Arab state under his leadership. Was once (as a child) publicly slapped by one of his teachers. Many say that this is the source of his resentment for academics, apparent in many of his speeches and essays. Libya's dictator from 1969 to 2011. Wrote "The Green Book". His eldest son, Saif al-Islam, was expected to be Libya's next president. His son Saadi was a professional football player in Italy for a while. In a quite eerie coincidence, the year of his death had been predicted by a 1980s sitcom Second Chance (1987). The pilot episode of the show which aired in 1987 featured the ex-Libyan leader as one of the people showing up in Saint Peter's Office on July 29, 2011 to be judged whether he will go to hell or heaven. His hair was actually a wig, as was revealed after his death.

During the 1970s and 1980s he funded terrorist groups in the West, including the Provisional IRA. Rebel forces said Gaddafi was killed by crossfire, although video footage showed him being savagely beaten before being shot several times. He was often referred to as Colonel Gaddafi, although he was actually only a lieutenant when he seized power in September 1969, having recently been passed over for promotion to captain. His actual year of birth went unrecorded, as Libya was under Italian occupation at the time. Gaddafi himself said he could have been born before 1940. Personal Quotes (2) BBC News - Muammar Gaddafi: How he died Print Muammar Gaddafi: How he died Col Muammar Gaddafi died from bullet wounds some time after a failed attempt to escape from the fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC), but the exact circumstances of his death are still emerging. CLICKABLE Gaddafi captured Disturbing mobile footage shows Col Gaddafi dragged onto a waiting pick-up truck after he was found hiding in a drainage pipe. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Sirte.

Airstrike destroys convoy A convoy carrying Col Gaddafi and his supporters was destroyed by a French fighter jet. Attempt to escape Sirte After the fall of Tripoli in August, Sirte remained one of the final pockets of loyalist resistance, in particular District 2 in the north-west of the city. In the early hours of Thursday Colonel Gaddafi, accompanied by key loyalists, decided to attempt a breakout from District 2 in a convoy of vehicles. According to a member of his inner circle, Mansour Dhao Ibrahim , an increasingly desperate Gaddafi had decided to seek refuge in his birthplace, the Jarref Valley. At about 0830 local time French aircraft operating as part of the Nato mission attacked the convoy of 75 vehicles heading out of Sirte at high speed approximately 3-4 km (two miles) west of the city near the western roundabout. Among those in the convoy were Col Gaddafi's son Mutassim and head of the army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr. Both men were later reported dead at the scene and Mutassim's body shown on Libyan TV. According to Nato, a first strike destroyed one vehicle and caused the convoy to disperse into several groups.

One of those groups, carrying Col Gaddafi, headed south and was hit again by a Nato fighter, destroying 11 vehicles. My master is here ... Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded” End Quote Unnamed Gaddafi bodyguard Col Gaddafi and a handful of his men managed to escape on foot and sought refuge in two large drainage pipes filled with rubbish. Rebel forces then closed in. Fighter Salem Bakeer told Reuters: "At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use. "Then we went in on foot. One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air... as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me. I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'". Gaddafi caught Col Gaddafi was captured at around noon. Amateur video of Col Muammar Gaddafi shortly before he was shot dead The al-Jazeera news channel broadcast footage showing the dazed and wounded Col Gaddafi gesticulating while being man-handled by rebel fighters.

Salem Bakeer told Reuters: "We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'What's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?' Then we took him and put him in the car." One fighter showed reporters a golden pistol he said he had taken from Col Gaddafi. Gabriel Gatehouse first saw the man brandishing Gaddafi's golden gun in October 2011 Still images from an analysis of amateur video footage taken in the moments after Col Gaddafi's capture appear to show him being sodomised with a pole or knife. According to Mr Jibril, the colonel died just minutes away from hospital . He later told journalists that a "forensic report" had concluded that the colonel had died from bullet wounds when the car he was in was caught in crossfire. "The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi's forces," he said. An interview with the commander of the brigade that captured Gaddafi suggests that the former leader died in an ambulance and appears to support the official version that he was killed in crossfire.

But a man claiming to be an eyewitness told the BBC that he saw Col Gaddafi being shot with a 9mm gun in the abdomen at around 1230 local time and initial video footage seemed to show his body being dragged through the streets of Misrata. Col Muammar Gaddafi was shot in the abdomen, according to a man who says he was there Further amateur video footage has also emerged of a convoy of NTC fighters following an ambulance. The video includes scenes of soldiers celebrating with a man who they claim shot Col Gaddafi . The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has said there should be a full investigation. Her spokesman Rupert Colville told the BBC: "There are two videos out there, one showing him alive and one showing him dead and there are four or five different versions of what happened in between those two cellphone videos.

That obviously raises very, very major concerns." The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse visited the drain where Col Gaddafi was reportedly found by NTC forces More on This Story Gaddafi's home town is a target along the rebel path to victory | The Independent Gaddafi's home town is a target along the rebel path to victory Tuesday 23 August 2011 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Tony Blair and Muammar Gaddafi near Sirte in 2004 as they re-established ties PA If the rebels are to claim a complete victory in their battle to unseat Muammar Gaddafi and unify Libya, it's not just the streets of Tripoli they need to conquer. There is a clean and pleasant seaside city about 230 miles to the east, barely touched by the six-month uprising, where oil money and tribal ties have bought a loyalty seen in few places in the North African nation. Click HERE to view graphic (62k jpg) It is Sirte, where Colonel Gaddafi was born and educated, a city he transformed from an inconsequential coastal outpost to a potential capital to replace Tripoli.

It was in a Bedouin tent just outside the city that Colonel Gaddafi was pictured shaking hands with Tony Blair as Britain and Libya re-established ties. And, in one of the many ironies of the conflict, in Sirte in 2005, Kofi Annan, who was then the UN secretary general, established the UN Democracy Fund at an African Union summit. Although it is relatively small, with a population of about 150,000, military units still loyal to Col Gaddafi are posted at the city, while there is an air force base outside it. It was from Sirte that regime forces fired the only two Scud missiles of the conflict, the first on 15 August and another on Monday. Since the revolution began, Sirte has been a holy grail for the rebels advancing from the east. One of their main grievances has been the unfair distribution of oil wealth and Sirte's favourite son has rewarded his home town handsomely. On the banks of the Mediterranean, Sirte boasts a university, modern architecture, a conference centre and even a water park. Col Gaddafi has lavished attention on the two dominant tribes there, buying their loyalty.

Fighters from the east never really got close to the city – a brief advance on Sirte at the end of March was swiftly repelled. Last night, there were reports the rebels were making advances along the coast, and they claimed to have seized Ras Lanuf and killed a number of Gaddafi troops in an army convoy coming from Sirte. Pan-Arab television station Al Arabiya also reported that Gaddafi forces were shelling the oil town of Zuara near Tunisian border. The Associated Press yesterday reported that many Sirte residents were unaware of the assault on Tripoli, with communications and power cut. Calls to Al-Tahadi University in the city were not connected. "There is no power in Sirte – we are getting in touch with the people inside only through satellite phones," Hassan al-Daroui, an opposition official, said. "We are worried that Gaddafi wants to just kill as many people as he can before his demise. He knows he is finished – now he wants to bring Sirte down with him." There are other cities still under Col Gaddafi's control, notably Al Khums just east of Tripoli, the southern city of Sebha, and a number of tribal towns in the desert.

But the symbolism of Sirte makes it a potent prize for the rebels. Analysts say a victorious opposition must try to build bridges with former Gaddafi supporters rather than embark on an orgy of revenge. Residents in Sirte will be hoping for some forgiveness when the rebels finally come calling. More about: The macabre rape chamber of Colonel Gaddafi Email a friend IT HAS been more than two years since the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator whose reign subjected an impoverished people to four decades of murder and terror. When the bedraggled former leader was hauled out of a drainpipe and shot in October 2011, his death ended the bloody NATO-led civil war that had ravaged the country since the start of that year. The full horror of his brutality has been slow to emerge, with many Libyans still fearing retaliation by those who continue to be loyal to their late leader. But it can now be revealed that the most heartbreaking of Gaddafi's victims include hundreds, possibly thousands of teenage girls who, throughout his 42-year reign, were beaten, raped and forced to become his sex slaves.

Many were virgins kidnapped from schools and universities and kept prisoner for years in a specially designed secret sex lair hidden within Tripoli University or his many palaces. In the 26 months since he was deposed, Gaddafi's den - where he regularly raped girls as young as 14 - has remained locked. But today its gaudy interior, where the colonel brutalised his victims, can be seen for the first time in photographs from a hard-hitting BBC4 documentary . — Toby. (@TobyCutner) January 25, 2014 Inside the small, nondescript single-storey complex, the girls were forced to watch pornography to 'educate' them for their degrading treatment at the hands of Gaddafi. And even those who did manage to escape were often shunned by their deeply religious Muslim families who believed their family honour had been tainted. When the dictator's body was dragged through the streets by a baying mob, just hours after he was beaten and shot in the head, the hastily convened transitional government moved swiftly to seal off the sex dungeon. They feared the full extent of Gaddafi's debased and lewd lifestyle would horrify the Western world and cause deep embarrassment to Libya.

One of the rooms holds little more than a double bed, lit by an orange lamp. Its 1970s decor and grimy jacuzzi - all left exactly as they were when Gaddafi last used it - give it a seedy and gloomy air. But even more chilling is the clinical gynaecological suite in an adjoining room. It was here, on two beds fitted with stirrups behind a table laden with surgical instruments, that Gaddafi's young victims were examined to ensure they had no sexually transmittable diseases. And here they were forced to undergo abortions if they became pregnant. They, however, were the lucky ones. Other young victims were so badly abused that they were dumped in car parks and on waste ground, and left to die. Degrading: This is the fully-fitted gynaecological suite where young girls would be placed in one of the two beds and checked...Source:Supplied Gaddafi's modus operandi was to tour schools and universities where female students were invited to his lectures. As he spoke before his hushed audience, he would silently scan the room seeking out attractive girls. Before leaving he would pat those he had 'selected' on the head.

Within hours his private bodyguards would round up those chosen and kidnap them. If their families tried to keep them from Gaddafi's clutches, they were gunned down. One teacher at a Tripoli school recalled how the girls were all very young. "Some were only 14," she said. "They would simply take the girl they wanted. They had no conscience, no morals, not an iota of mercy even though she was a mere child." One mother, whose daughter was a student, said the community around Tripoli University lived in fear when a visit from the colonel was announced. "The girls he wanted would be rounded up and sent to him," she said. Libya's former leader Muammar ...Source:AP "One just disappeared and they never found her again, despite her father and brothers searching for her. Another was found three months later, cut, raped and lying in the middle of a park. She had been left for dead." Even today, the Libyan people are afraid to speak openly about Gaddafi's depravity, fearing reprisals from his former henchmen.

But one woman - who was repeatedly raped by the despot over seven years from the age of 15 - has anonymously spoken of how he terrorised and abused her. She had been chosen to present the colonel with a bouquet when he toured her school in his home town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, 350 miles east of Tripoli. When he patted her head afterwards, in an apparently paternal gesture, she thought she had pleased the man she and her fellow Libyans were forced to call 'the Guide'. Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi followed by his female bodyguards.Source:AP The next day three women dressed in military uniform arrived telling her parents she was needed to present more flowers. Instead, she was driven at high speed to Gaddafi's lair. Once there, he barked at his women soldiers: "Get her ready." The girl was stripped, given a blood test and shaved of all but her pubic hair. She was dressed in a G-string, forced into a low-cut gown and had thick make-up plastered on her face. When she was shoved into Gaddafi's room, to her horror he was lying naked on the bed.

When she tried to run out, the women soldiers grabbed her and flung her back on the bed. She was raped repeatedly during the seven years she was held captive, eventually escaping when a door was accidentally left unlocked. Fuelled by cocaine and alcohol - and often Viagra - Gaddafi abused her horribly. "I will never forget that first time, that moment," she says. "He violated my body and pierced my soul with a dagger. That blade will never come out." It took the documentary-makers months of negotiations to be allowed access to information on Gaddafi as Libya remains secretive and hidebound by bureaucracy. An interior view of the house of Aisha Gaddafi, daughter of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi.Source:AP But they also established that Gaddafi set up a 'murder for hire' team run from Havana to rid him of enemies around the world. In a secret interview from Cuba, former CIA agent Frank Terpil said: "I would say [it was] Murder Incorporated ... murder for hire.

Gaddafi thought that anybody who was a dissident, they [should be] eliminated, he had contracts out on a bunch of people in London." He often stored the bodies of those killed in Libya in freezers so that he could regularly view them. If Gaddafi was power-crazed, he was also paranoid. A Brazilian plastic surgeon found himself escorted deep inside a bunker in Tripoli in the middle of the night in order to remove fat from Gaddafi's belly and inject it into his increasingly wrinkled face. Despite the pain, Gaddafi refused a general anaesthetic, fearing he might be poisoned - and because he wished to remain alert. Halfway through the operation, he stopped to have a hamburger. He also created an elite squad of bodyguards - all female - whom he used for sex and forced to watch multiple barbaric executions. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a female bodyguard.Source:News Limited For decades Gaddafi surrounded himself with these beautiful young women. Dressed in close-fitting military uniforms, with manicured nails and perfectly coiffed hair, they exuded glamour while toting guns. But they were little more than disposable prostitutes used and abused by Gaddafi and his family.

Known as 'the Haris al-Has' - the private female guards - almost all were coerced into joining his cadre. One of them, who admits she had "once adored him", recalled the horrific treatment they had to endure. "Early one morning, at 2am, we were taken to a closed hall," she said. "We were to witness the murder of 17 students. We were not allowed to scream. We were made to cheer and shout. To act as though delighted by this display. Inside I was crying. They shot them all, one by one." According to Benghazi-based psychologist Seham Sergewa, who interviewed scores of the girls for the International Criminal Court, there were about 400 members of the elite squad over the years. Former Libyan President Colonel Moammar Gaddafi and a glamorous female bodyguard in Cairo, May 1996.Source:AP "A pattern emerged in their stories," she explains. "The women would first be raped by the dictator then passed on, like used objects, to one of his sons and eventually to high- ranking officials for more abuse. "In one case a girl of 18 said she was raped in front of her father.

She kept begging her distraught father to look away. Many of the victims say they contemplated suicide many times. Doubtless there were some who took their own lives." It has also emerged that teams of boys were sent to Gaddafi's sex den, where they too were abused. Former chief of protocol Nuri Al Mismari, who was at Gaddafi's side for 40 years, adds: "He was terribly sexually deviant. Young boys and so on. He had his own boys. They used to be called the 'services group'. All of them were boys and bodyguards ... a harem for his pleasure." The house of the daughter of former Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Tripoli, Libya.Source:AP Storyville: Mad Dog - Gaddafi's Secret World will be shown on BBC4 at 10pm on February 3.

Uncovered: The macabre sex chamber of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi where he raped girls - and boys - as young as 14 | Daily Mail Online Uncovered: The macabre sex chamber of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi where he raped girls - and boys - as young as 14 Colonel Muhammar Gaddafi kept several 'sex dungeons' at his palaces Libyan tyrant forced hundreds of young girls to become his sex slaves Gaddafi also had a 'harem' of young men called 'the services group' Dictator visited schools and 'chose' his victims with a pat on the head Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 after 42 years of dictatorship comments IT has been more than two years since the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator whose reign subjected an impoverished people to four decades of murder and terror. When the bedraggled former leader was hauled out of a drainpipe and shot in October 2011, his death ended the bloody Nato-led civil war that had ravaged the country since the start of that year.

The full horror of his brutality has been slow to emerge, with many Libyans still fearing retaliation by those who continue to be loyal to their late leader. But it can now be revealed that the most heartbreaking of Gaddafi’s victims include hundreds, possibly thousands of teenage girls who, throughout his 42-year reign, were beaten, raped and forced to become his sex slaves. Scroll down for video Chilling: This is the bedroom in Gaddafi's 'sex dungeon', decorated in 70s style with brown walls and a double bed, where he would take girls as young as 14 and sexually abuse them against their will Degrading: This is the fully-fitted gynecological suite where young girls would be placed in one of the two beds and checked for STDs before they were sent in to the waiting dictator Many were virgins kidnapped from schools and universities and kept prisoner for years in a specially designed secret sex lair hidden within Tripoli University or his many palaces. In the 26 months since he was deposed, Gaddafi’s den – where he regularly raped girls as young as 14 – has remained locked.

But today its gaudy interior, where the colonel brutalised his victims, can be seen for the first time in photographs from a hard-hitting BBC4 documentary. Inside the small, nondescript single-storey complex, the girls were forced to watch pornography to ‘educate’ them for their degrading treatment at the hands of Gaddafi. And even those who did manage to escape were often shunned by their deeply religious Muslim families who believed their family honour had been tainted. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share When the dictator’s body was dragged through the streets by a baying mob, just hours after he was beaten and shot in the head, the hastily convened transitional government moved swiftly to seal off the sex dungeon. They feared the full extent of Gaddafi’s debased and lewd lifestyle would horrify the Western world and cause deep embarrassment to Libya. One of the rooms holds little more than a double bed, lit by an orange lamp. Its 1970s decor and grimy Jacuzzi – all left exactly as they were when Gaddafi last used it – give it a seedy and gloomy air. But even more chilling is the clinical gynaecological suite in an adjoining room.

It was here, on two beds fitted with stirrups behind a table laden with surgical instruments, that Gaddafi’s young victims were examined to ensure they had no sexually transmittable diseases. And here they were forced to undergo abortions if they became pregnant. 'Sexual deviant': Colonel Gaddafi kept hundreds of girls as sex slaves during his years at the helm of Libya, but also kept a 'harem' of young boys They, however, were the lucky ones. Other young victims were so badly abused that they were dumped in car parks and on waste ground, and left to die. Gaddafi’s modus operandi was to tour schools and universities where female students were invited to his lectures. As he spoke before his hushed audience, he would silently scan the room seeking out attractive girls. Before leaving he would pat those he had ‘selected’ on the head. Within hours his private bodyguards would round up those chosen and kidnap them. If their families tried to keep them from Gaddafi’s clutches, they were gunned down. One teacher at a Tripoli school recalled how the girls were all very young. ‘Some were only 14,’ she said. ‘They would simply take the girl they wanted.

They had no conscience, no morals, not an iota of mercy even though she was a mere child.’ The teacher also feared for her own daughter who was attending Tripoli University. She told her mother how the community around the university lived in fear when a visit from the colonel was announced. ‘The girls he wanted would be rounded up and sent to him,’ she said. ‘One just disappeared and they never found her again, despite her father and brothers searching for her. Another was found three months later, cut, raped and lying in the middle of a park. She had been left for dead.’ Even today, the Libyan people are afraid to speak openly about Gaddafi’s depravity, fearing reprisals from his former henchmen. But one woman – who was repeatedly raped by the despot over seven years from the age of 15 – has anonymously spoken of how he terrorised and abused her. She had been chosen to present the colonel with a bouquet when he toured her school in his home town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, 350 miles east of Tripoli.

When he patted her head afterwards, in an apparently paternal gesture, she thought she had pleased the man she and her fellow Libyans were forced to call ‘the Guide’. The next day three woman dressed in military uniform arrived telling her parents she was needed to present more flowers. Instead, she was driven at high speed to Gaddafi’s lair. Once there, he barked at his women soldiers: ‘Get her ready.’ The girl was stripped, given a blood test and shaved of all but her pubic hair. She was dressed in a G-string, forced into a low-cut gown and had thick make-up plastered on her face. When she was shoved into Gaddafi’s room, to her horror he was lying naked on the bed. When she tried to run out, the women soldiers grabbed her and flung her back on the bed. She was raped repeatedly during the seven years she was held captive, eventually escaping when a door was accidentally left unlocked. Fuelled by cocaine and alcohol – and often Viagra – Gaddafi abused her horribly. ‘I will never forget that first time, that moment,’ she says. ‘He violated my body and pierced my soul with a dagger.

That blade will never come out.’ It took the documentary-makers months of negotiations to be allowed access to information on Gaddafi as Libya remains secretive and hide-bound by bureaucracy. Bodyguards: Many of Gaddafi's famous battalion of female guards had also been abused by the despot Bizarre: According to Dr Ribeiro, Gaddafi insisted on having procedures without anaesthetic But they also established that Gaddafi set up a ‘murder for hire’ team run from Tripoli to rid him of enemies around the world. In a secret interview from Cuba, former CIA agent Frank Terpil said: ‘I would say [it was] Murder Incorporated . . . murder for hire. Gaddafi thought that anybody who was a dissident, they [should be] eliminated, he had contracts out on a bunch of people in London.’ He often stored the bodies of those killed in Libya in freezers so that he could regularly view them. If Gaddafi was power-crazed, he was also paranoid. A Brazilian plastic surgeon found himself escorted deep inside a bunker in Tripoli in the middle of the night in order to remove fat from Gaddafi’s belly and inject it into his increasingly wrinkled face.

Despite the pain, Gaddafi refused a general anaesthetic, fearing he might be poisoned – and because he wished to remain alert. Halfway through the operation, he stopped to have a hamburger. He also created an elite squad of bodyguards – all female – whom he used for sex and forced to watch multiple barbaric executions. For decades Gaddafi surrounded himself with these beautiful young women. Dressed in close-fitting military uniforms, with manicured nails and perfectly coiffed hair, they exuded glamour while toting guns. But they were little more than disposable prostitutes used and abused by Gaddafi and his family. Known as ‘the Haris al-Has’ – the private female guards – almost all were coerced into joining his cadre. One of them, who admits she had ‘once adored him’, recalled the horrific treatment they had to endure. ‘Early one morning, at 2am, we were taken to a closed hall,’ she said. ‘We were to witness the murder of 17 students. We were not allowed to scream. We were made to cheer and shout. To act as though delighted by this display. Inside I was crying.

They shot them all, one by one.’ According to Benghazi-based psychologist Seham Sergewa, who interviewed scores of the girls for the International Criminal Court, there were about 400 members of the elite squad over the years. ‘A pattern emerged in their stories,’ she explains. ‘The women would first be raped by the dictator then passed on, like used objects, to one of his sons and eventually to high- ranking officials for more abuse. ‘In one case a girl of 18 said she was raped in front of her father. She kept begging her distraught father to look away. Many of the victims say they contemplated suicide many times. Doubtless there were some who took their own lives.’ The end: After months of civil war, Muammar Gaddafi was tracked down in October 2011 and shot by freedom fighters It has also emerged that teams of boys were sent to Gaddafi’s sex den, where they too were abused. Former chief of protocol Nuri Al Mismari, who was at Gaddafi’s side for 40 years, adds: ‘He was terribly sexually deviant. Young boys and so on. He had his own boys. They used to be called the “services group”.

All of them were boys and bodyguards . . . a harem for his pleasure.’ One of the few Libyans who was prepared to be named and talk about the horrors Gaddafi inflicted on his people was Baha Kikhia, the widow of Libya’s former foreign minister with whom Gaddafi had a frosty relationship. When her husband vanished one evening, she confronted Gaddafi about his whereabouts. The colonel refused to tell but, to Baha’s horror, his body was one of many found in freezers after the regime fell. ‘He liked to keep his victims in the refrigerators to look at them now and again,’ she says haltingly. ‘He would visit his victims. ‘It was as though they were some sort of macabre souvenirs. Something that he could look at and touch to remind himself of his omnipotence.

Some had been there as long as 25 years.’ The Libyan people had always known Gaddafi to be violent and unstable, but it was only after he was accused of perpetrating the Lockerbie bombing on December 21, 1988 – in which 270 American and British lives were lost when Libya blew up the Pan Am airliner on which they were travelling – that the West was prepared to take any action. Strict sanctions were applied by America, although according to Gwenyth Todd, the former National Security Council Director for Libya at the White House, Western leaders – including Britain’s then Prime Minister, Tony Blair – eventually sought to have them lifted and Gaddafi’s reputation restored. In 2001, Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing and jailed for life. But eight years later, seriously ill with cancer, he was controversially released by the Scottish legal system on compassionate grounds –although many including Jim Swire, the father of one of the victims, maintain he was not guilty of the bombing. The BBC4 documentary also suggests the Lockerbie jet was not the only one Gaddafi’s regime blew up.

Ali Aujali, Libya’s former ambassador to Washington, insists Gaddafi was responsible for bringing down a civilian aircraft in 1992 within a day of the fourth Lockerbie anniversary, killing all 157 on board. ‘Gaddafi shot down a Libyan jet just to send a message to the world that sanctions had hurt Libyan lives,’ Aujali says. ‘It was his way of showing the world how sanctions were affecting life in Libya – making it look as though the plane crashed because it needed spare parts which weren’t available. It was 100 per cent down to Gaddafi.’ Storyville: Mad Dog – Gaddafi’s Secret World will be shown on BBC4 at 10pm on February 3. Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future | Reuters Thu Oct 20, 2011 | 7:15 PM EDT Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future By Barry Malone | TRIPOLI TRIPOLI NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated".

The likely decision to end the alliance's patrols over the skies of Libya at the end of the month marks another milestone in what the National Transitional Council (NTC) has pledged will be a road toward democracy and free and fair elections in 2013. But the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mo'tassim after both were captured wounded but alive on Thursday and the grisly public display of their decomposing bodies in a Misrata meat locker have made the NTC's Western backers uneasy about Libya's prospects for stable government and respect for the rule of law. Gaddafi and Mo'tassim were buried in a secret desert location on Tuesday to prevent their graves becoming a shrine for any remaining followers in the oil-rich North African state. Under pressure from Western allies, the NTC promised on Monday to investigate how Gaddafi and his son were killed. Mobile phone footage shows both alive after their capture. The former leader was seen being mocked, beaten and abused before he died, in what NTC officials say was crossfire. The treatment of others who supported Gaddafi and fought alongside him was now an issue, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. "This is a test.

The NTC has repeatedly said that they will distinguish themselves from the Gaddafi regime in terms of the respect of human rights and the rule of law," he told a news conference in Morocco. "Now is the time for them to begin actions that will help them reinforce these words." RIVALRIES Emerging from 42 years of often brutal one-man rule, many Libyans are savoring the end of eight months of bitter civil war won with NATO's backing and are unconcerned about how Gaddafi met his end and how his body was treated afterwards. "Throw him in a hole, in the sea, in garbage. No matter. He is lower than a donkey or a dog and only foreigners say they care about how we killed him. And they are lying," said engineer Ali Azzarog, 47. Hatred of Gaddafi unified his disparate opponents, who will likely now tussle for power during a planned transition to democracy in a nation riven with regional and tribal rivalries. With economic problems at home, NATO countries are expected to endorse an end to their U.N.-mandated mission in Libya when their ambassadors meet in Brussels on Wednesday after a preliminary decision last week to end it on October 31.

"We said that we would consult closely with the United Nations and the NTC and that process of consultations is ongoing," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. Libyan interim Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said he wanted NATO to maintain its mission for another month, but hoped for a swift end to United Nations sanctions to free up funds for the interim government to pay salaries and help reconstruction. SAIF ON THE RUN NATO spokeswoman Lungescu declined to say whether NATO might extend the mission. "I don't know whether there is a formal request. All these things remain to be sorted out. But in the end this is a political decision," she said. NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, James Appathurai, said he expected the alliance to confirm its decision to end the mission. "I don't expect that there will be a change to that decision, because it is quite clear that the pro-Gaddafi elements no longer have the command and control or other capabilities to pose an organized threat to civilians. That is now finished, and as a result our operation will end," he said.

Western military powers have already begun winding down the Libyan mission, and diplomats have said the majority of NATO equipment, including fighter jets, has already been withdrawn. A NATO statement on Tuesday said operations in the interim would involve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, although NATO would retain the capability to conduct air strikes if they were needed. The one remaining element from the old order is Gaddafi's sons, the enigmatic Saif al-Islam, who remains on the run. Once viewed as a moderate reformer, he vowed to help his father crush his enemies once the revolt began. An NTC official said Saif al-Islam was in the southern desert near Niger and Algeria and was set to flee Libya using a false passport. (Reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Samia Nakhoul in Dubai, Abdoulaye Massalaatchi in Niamey, Matt Falloon in London, Souhail Karam in Rabat; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Stamp and Ralph Gowling) ADVERTISEMENT

Question: What is the name of Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi's home town where he was killed in 2011?
Answer: Sirte